> In the interests of efficiency perhaps we could convince Roy to keep
> coldwater oz fish in his greenhouse in winter and Devil's Hole pupfish
> there in the summer and keep the blooming things over there - perhaps for
> restocking purposes :-)
That might work except that despite all the efforts only one Devil's Hole
pupfish has ever been raised to maturity in captivity. Eggs are easy to
get but that's about where it stops. Also, at this stage in the game it
is unlikely that aquarium stocks would be used for restocking as two
refuge populations already exist and Devil's Hole would never be
supplemented with fish from any source unless it went extinct there.
That's part of the reason why fisheries managers keep the fish out of
aquarists hands because some of them would be stupid enough (although
good intentioned) to put some captive pupfish back into wild
populations. This could introduce disease and / or less genetically
diverse fish or worse still fish from a different population. There are
to many people in this world who think they know what's best for the fish
when they really don't know squat. :-)
> Having never seen an Aphanius or a live pupfish either for that matter - I
> am unaware if they even exist in this country although I have no reason to
> think that Killifish enthusiasts are any less assiduous than their
> rainbowfish counterparts in devising ways of capitalising on unexpected or
> unusual migratory patterns of fishes from various parts of the world.
I believe there used to be some desert pupfish many years ago in Oz.
Aphanius aren't really that popular and most pupfish aren't very
available over here as they are mostly illegal to begin with due to the
Endangered Species Act which most of them are on. Mind you, that hasn't
stopped some folks. :=)
Tootles
Peter Unmack